The 2013-2014 certificate training program at The Allender Center came to an end in Chicago on Sunday, April 6, with a time of blessing and sending for 73 participants, culminating in a shared communion. The 73 participants completing their training included 25 Advanced Counseling Certificate participants and 48 Lay Counseling Certificate participants.
“It is a profound privilege and such a life-giving experience to journey with a group of practitioners and leaders who long for transformation in their own lives so they can bring healing and hope to others,” Rachael Clinton, member of The Allender Center Teaching Staff, said after the ending of this year’s training. “Through this training, participants and facilitators alike step deeply into personal narratives to understand the impact of story on one’s own style of relating, calling, and the places in all of our lives where continued healing is needed—in both our own lives and the lives of those we are called to serve. To see the participants grow in courage, audacity, and unnerving compassion throughout the year restores my hope that trauma and abuse will never have the final word—and for this, I am rich woman indeed.”
This is the third year The Allender Center provided training for counseling professionals and other leaders through its two certificate programs: the Advanced Counseling Certificate and the Lay Counseling Certificate.
The Advanced Counseling Certificate is a training program designed to provide counseling professionals with a robust understanding of The Allender Center methodology as well as a narrative framework for understanding and engaging the impact of trauma and abuse within the therapeutic relationship.
The Lay Counseling Certificate offers training for non-counseling professionals, empowering leaders as they come alongside, listen, engage and facilitate transformation. Designed for a diverse array of leaders who are caring for people and their stories, the Lay Counseling Certificate cultivates the capacity to feel more deeply and access the greatest gift we have to offer others—our presence.
Year after year, participants in each program continue to remark how greatly The Allender Center Certificate programs have impacted them both professionally and personally. “This training has given me new tools and has helped me grow existing tools that I have been developing as I enter into deeper places of my story,” a recent Lay Counseling Certificate recipient reported. “As a result, I feel more confident to walk beside other people in their stories.”
The Allender Center is now accepting applications for the next certificate training cohort, which will begin this fall at The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology in downtown Seattle, Washington. The Standard Deadline is approaching on May 19. Apply today to be a part of this deeply relational and highly impactful training program.